Chapter 5 - THE UNSEEN DISTANCE
Ignoring Captain Pierce, Master Sergeant Daniel Hayes stepped across the shooting pad, stopping directly behind Maya’s right shoulder inside lane seven. He stood tall under the hot sun, squinting his eyes as he followed the precise line of sight extending from Maya’s pupils out across the two-hundred-meter range.
Maya was not looking at the high-intensity light of the electronic scoreboard. She wasn't looking at the instructor, nor at the laughing crowd behind the safety rail.
Her focus was absolute, anchored entirely on the distant steel silhouette target mounted in front of the yellow sandy berm.
Daniel narrowed his eyes, shielding his brow with his right hand as he scanned the terrain surrounding lane seven’s target. The bright glare of the North Carolina sun washed out the colors of the range, creating a intense contrast between the dark metal frame and the light sand behind it.
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As Daniel’s trained eyes traced the precise trajectory line from lane seven’s muzzle to the steel frame, he began to notice something unusual near the structure—a tiny, structural anomaly around the target mount that defied standard range setup.
The heat haze wavered violently over the sand, keeping the exact nature of the anomaly obscured from clear view, but to a master instructor who knew every bolt and weld on Fort Liberty’s range, the sight was unmistakable.
